The M.R. Bauer Colloquium Seminar Series

In 2020-2021, Covid-19 changed the face of how research was conducted and many shifted topics to virus research. Over time, however, we realized that life, and science, must still go on. Questions on learning and behavior, adaptation, how biological changes lead to societal changes – these are topics that are important in pandemic times and beyond.

How does the brain adapt to changing circumstances? How do memories specify and alter behavior? The answers to these types of questions can help us to understand and adapt to an ever-changing world. As we have seen over the past year or two, the ability to adapt to varying circumstances is essential for long-term survival, and for those who are unable to adapt their behavior, survival and their place in society may take a different course.

The eight distinguished speakers who took part in the 2020-2021 M.R. Bauer Colloquium Series are working to explain how biology affects behavior; how the senses guide survival, how development can get off course, and how proteins and chemical signals can help societies to form. Each speaker presented a summary of their work, which is preceded by a brief introduction set in italics, explaining in a more general framework the focus of the speaker’s research.

Carlos Aizenman, PhD
Professor
Department of Neuroscience
Brown University

Daniel Colón-Ramos, PhD
Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor
of Neuroscience and Cell Biology
Department of Neuroscience
Yale Univeristy

Carlos Lois, PhD
Director, Chen Center for Neuroscience Education
Division of Biology & Biological Engineering
California Institute of Technology

Joseph McCarty, PhD
Professor
Department of Neurosurgery
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Nirao Shah, PhD
Professor
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Department of Neurobiology
Stanford University

Hongkui Zeng, PhD
Executive Vice President and
Director Allen Institute for Brain Science